LSM Newswire

Friday, January 1, 2010

The musicians of the National Arts Centre Orchestra are pleased to announce that the 2009 NACO musicians’ Christmas FanFair fundraising campaign has raised a total of $43,745 for the Snowsuit Fund and the Ottawa Food Bank. This amount will be divided evenly between the two charities.

The musicians of the NAC Orchestra wish most sincerely to thank the National Arts Centre, members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 471, and Friends of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, for their generous support.

Begun in 1989, this is now the third decade for the Christmas FanFair benefit produced by the musicians of the NAC Orchestra to benefit the Snowsuit Fund and the Ottawa Food Bank. The Snowsuit Fund is an Ottawa-based charity that has been raising funds for the purchase and distribution of snowsuits to needy children 15 years and under for more than 25 years. The demand for their services continues to grow; in 2008-2009, the Snowsuit Fund distributed nearly 15,000 new snowsuits. The Ottawa Food Bank provides 43,000 people each month with emergency food assistance, 40% of whom are children. The Ottawa Food Bank supports more than 135 food programs throughout the National Capital Region, distributing 12 tons of food every working day; $1 donated to the Ottawa Food Bank generates $5 worth of food into the community.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Acclaimed conductor Trevor Pinnock returns to the National Arts Centre to lead the NAC Orchestra and gifted soloists in Handel’s Messiah

on December 15-16 in Southam Hall

OTTAWA, December 3, 2009 —An undisputed highlight of the NAC’s 40th Anniversary season, Handel’s Messiah will be performed at 7 p.m. (please note early curtain time) in Southam Hall of the National Arts Centre on Tuesday December 15 and Wednesday December 16.

The NAC Orchestra will be under the baton of conductor Trevor Pinnock. Soloists performing this treasured holiday classic will be radiant soprano Geraldine McGreevy; Marie-Nicole Lemieux, a Canadian contralto known for the richness, warmth and resonance of her voice; Canadian tenor Benjamin Butterfield, famous for his absolutely gorgeous voice and total musicality; and rising star Robert Gleadow, hailed for the rare beauty of his supple bass-baritone. They will be joined by the Cantata Singers of Ottawa and Seventeen Voyces.

Trevor Pinnock is a renowned British conductor and harpsichordist. Mr. Pinnock was also artistic director and principal conductor of the NAC Orchestra from 1991 to 1996. As Steven Mazey wrote in the Ottawa Citizen on November 14, 2009 “…[Pinnock] seems to have a special feeling for Handel’s Messiah…. His recording of the piece has been widely praised as among the best versions available, and his Ottawa performances of Messiah have been memorable. …in 2004, music critic Richard Todd praised [Pinnock’s performances] as “the most refined and musical Messiah to grace Southam Hall in many years. Pinnock’s sense of the music’s shape and proportion would be hard to find in another conductor, and he found beauty in many details that normally flow by unnoticed.”

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) – whom Beethoven called “the greatest composer that ever lived” – was arguably the most cosmopolitan and versatile theatrical composer of the Baroque period. He was born and trained in Germany, achieved mastery and success in every musical genre while in Italy, and then settled for nearly five decades in England, during which time he assimilated all those nation’s musical styles and specialised in operas and oratorios.

Messiah was first performed in Dublin in 1742. It immediately won huge popular success and has become the most performed and recorded and listened-to choral work in the repertoire. The popularity of Messiah is not difficult to explain. Musical scholars note the spaciousness in Handel’s music, the dramatic silences, and the stirring contrast.. Handel’s music often blends different styles, including English church music, the German Passion-music tradition, and the Italian melodic style.

Although often regarded as Christmas music, Messiah was actually written for Easter, a celebration of birth, but also of death and resurrection. Handel composed Messiah in 24 days without once leaving his house. While writing the "Hallelujah Chorus", his servant discovered him with tears in his eyes. He exclaimed, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself!!” The King was so deeply stirred with the exultant music that when the first ‘Hallelujah’ rang through the hall, he rose to his feet and remained standing until the last note of the chorus echoed through the house. From this began the custom of standing for the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus.

This concert will be recorded by Radio-Canada’s music radio network Espace musique (102,5 FM) for broadcast on Tuesday December 22, 2009 as part ofSoirées classiques, which is presented from Monday to Thursday at 8 p.m. It will also be available on the Espace classique web radio service at Radio-Canada.ca/espaceclassique. The concert will also be broadcast on CBC Radio Two (103.3 FM)

onTempo, with host Julie Nesrallah, on Wednesday December 23 at 11 a.m.

The NAC Orchestra performs Handel’s Messiah in Southam Hall of the National Arts Centre on Tuesday December 15 and Wednesday December 16 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25, $34, $46, $54, $64, $74, and $89 for adults and $13.75, $18.25, $24.25, $28.25, $33.25, $38.25 and $45.75 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at 613-755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s websitewww.nac-cna.ca.

Subject to availability, full-time students (aged 13-29) with validLive Rush™ membership may buy up to 2 tickets per performance at the discount price of $11 per ticket. Tickets are available online (www.nac-cna.ca) or at the NAC box office from 10 a.m. on the day before the performance until 6 p.m. on the day of the show or 2 hours before a matinee. Groups of 10 or more save 15% to 20% off regular ticket prices to all NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances; to reserve your seats, call Julie Laroche at 613-947-7000, ext. 634 or e-mailgrp@nac-cna.ca.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

NAC Orchestra celebrates its 40th birthday with first-ever performance of Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony led by Pinchas Zukerman on Oct. 8-9

Ottawa, Canada – The National Arts Centre Orchestra is turning 40 years old, and to celebrate the occasion, Music Director Pinchas Zukerman will lead the musicians in their first-ever performance Mahler’s mighty “Titan” Symphony No. 1 in Bostonian Bravo Series concerts on Thursday, October 8 and Friday, October 9 at 8 p.m. in Southam Hall.

The special occasion will also be marked by two works from the NAC Orchestra’s four-decade history. Pinchas Zukerman, also one of the world’s most celebrated violinists, will perform Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor, a piece first performed by the Orchestra in 1971 with Szymon Goldberg as both conductor and violin soloist. Maestro Zukerman will also lead stellar Canadian baritone Russell Braun (who has been a guest artist with the NAC Orchestra since 1994) in Songs for an Acrobat, a work commissioned from Canadian Linda Bouchard in 1995 during the period when she was the Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence. The music is set to poems by Quebec writer Maurice Tourigny, a close friend of Bouchard. The NAC Orchestra’s Marquis Classics recording of the work was nominated for a Juno Award. The NAC Orchestra will also perform Songs for an Acrobat at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto later this season on January 16, 2010.

There will be Musically Speaking pre-concert chats both nights at 7 p.m. with music critic Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer. On Thursday, October 8 he will present the talk in English titled “The Beginning and Ending of a World”, and on Friday, October 9 he will present it in French titled “Début et fin d’un monde”.

Mahler’s First Symphony is one of the most original and innovative in music history. With the sole exception of Brahms, and possibly Sibelius, there is probably no other composer than Gustav Mahler whose First Symphony represents such a towering achievement. Among the innovations one can point to are the largest assemblage of orchestral musicians hitherto required in a symphony, and the incorporation of café, pop and gypsy music. And nowhere else are the sounds of nature so pervasively and integrally bound up with the symphonic thought than in the first movement of this symphony. Other things to listen for are the unusual rendition of “Frère Jacques” played by the double bass, and a finale in which seven horns – their bells turned up – proclaim the heroic ending.

The expanded NAC Orchestra for Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 “Titan” is made possible by the Friends of the NAC Orchestra Kilpatrick Fund. The late William Kilpatrick was a longtime NAC subscriber who bequeathed funds to NACOA (now called Friends of the NAC Orchestra), the revenue from which is given to the Orchestra each year to help present a work that requires larger instrumental forces. The Friends of the NAC Orchestra are also celebrating their 40th birthday at this time.

The orchestral forces are also supplemented for this concert by the apprentices of the Institute for Orchestral Studies – five young string players chosen by audition to join the NAC Orchestra in rehearsal and concert, and to receive mentorship from NAC Orchestra musicians, on five different occasions throughout the season.

The concerts are being recorded by CBC Radio 2 for future broadcast on In Concert with host Bill Richardson, on Tempo with host Julie Nesrallah, and for Radio-Canada Espace Musique on Soirée classiques hosted by Michel Keable. Bill Richardson will also host an intermission interview with composer Linda Bouchard and baritone Russell Braun in the Main Foyer.

After the opening concert on Thursday, October 8, the audience is invited to join the musicians in the Foyer for birthday cake and coffee courtesy of Bostonian Executive Suites and Mark Motors Audi.

These concerts also mark the first of this season’s “Exploration of the Symphony” podcast series. You can go online to the NAC’s website at www.nac-cna.ca/podcast to hear assistant principal double bass Marjolaine Fournier interview music critic Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer about Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony in separate English and French versions.

Tickets for the NAC Orchestra’s 40th birthday concerts on October 8 and 9 in the NAC’s Southam Hall at 8 p.m. are on sale now at $19, $29, $39.50, $50, $60, $70 and $87.50 at the newly renovated NAC Box Office (Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at 613-755-1111. Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s website at www.nac-cna.ca.

Half-price tickets for students in all sections of the hall are on sale in person at the NAC Box Office upon presentation of a valid student ID card. Live Rush tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students (aged 13 to 29) are $11 at the NAC Box Office from 2 p.m. the day before the concert to 6 p.m. the day of, upon presentation of a valid Live Rush card.

Groups of 10 and more save 15% to 20% off the regular price of tickets to NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances. To reserve your seats call 613-947-7000 ext. 384 or email grp@nac-cna.ca.

Sept. 26: Music for a Sunday Afternoon begins with cellist Lynn Harrell

Ottawa, Canada – The first Music for a Sunday Afternoon chamber music concert of the National Arts Centre Orchestra season takes place on SATURDAY, September 26 and features solo cello followed by a chamber quartet. Famed American cellist Lynn Harrell has the first half to himself, performing Bach’s Suite for Cello Solo No. 3 in C major. In the second half a stellar quartet made up of NAC Orchestra Music Director Pinchas Zukerman on violin, principal cello Amanda Forsyth, associate principal viola Jethro Marks and guest pianist Angela Cheng performing Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major. This concert takes place on Saturday, September 26 at 2 p.m. in the Auditorium of the National Gallery of Canada.

Bach’s six Suites for Solo Cello are extraordinary compositions in many ways. Unaccompanied music for this instrument was practically unknown in Bach’s day. They date from about 1720, when he was working for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. They were published as early as 1825, but remained in obscurity until Pablo Casals revived them in the early 20th century. Thanks to Casals, they are now recognized as masterpieces of the genre, and today rank among the pillars of every cellist’s repertoire.

If Schubert’s final, C-major symphony (The Great) justly deserves Robert Schumann’s epithet “the symphony of heavenly length,” then Brahms’s Second Piano Quartet equally deserves the title in the realm of chamber music. Lasting about 45 minutes in performance, it unfolds in a leisurely manner, brimming with hummable themes and ardent lyricism.

Tickets for Music for a Sunday Afternoon on Saturday, September 26 are on sale now at $29.00 (GST and Facility Fee included) at the NAC Box Office (Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.), and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at 613-755-1111. Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s website at www.nac-cna.ca. They may also be purchased at the National Gallery one hour before the concert

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The NAC Orchestra launches its 09-10 season with Romantic Revolution Festival led by Music Director Pinchas Zukerman, including guest artists Gil Shah

Ottawa, Canada – Pinchas Zukerman opens the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s 40th anniversary season with the Romantic Revolution Festival from Wednesday, September 23 to Thursday, October 1 with guest stars including violinist Gil Shaham, pianists Angela Cheng, Katherine Chi and Anton Kuerti, and cellist Lynn Harrell. Over the course of five magnificent concerts on September 23, 24, 25, 30 and October 1 – four led by Pinchas Zukerman and one by Jean-Marie Zeitouni – the Festival explores the pivotal period in artistic and musical history that marked the emergence of Romanticism. Audiences will hear the first tentative strains of Romanticism in the music of Haydn (including his Cello Concerto performed by Lynn Harrell) and in Mozart’s later piano concertos (performed by Angela Cheng and Katherine Chi). They will hear it flourish in the glorious passages of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony and Concerto for Violin (the latter performed and conducted by Pinchas Zukerman) and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto (performed by Gil Shaham) and in the anguished harmonies of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony; and reach full power in the Symphony No. 4 by Schumann (Romantic composer par excellence) and the heart-wrenching Prelude to Act III of Verdi’s La Traviata. (A chronological listing of concerts follows.)

Each concert opens with a capella musical selections sung by the Cantata Singers of Ottawa led by director Michael Zaugg.

The Festival includes “Musically Speaking” talks at 7 p.m. given by media and musical celebrities prior to the concerts on September 23, 24, and 25, and October 1. The first two are in French: “L’Art de composer un programme” with musicologist Carol Bergeron on Sept. 23; “Les Beautés de l’inachèvement : la Huitième Symphonie de Schubert” with François Dompierre, composer and host, Radio-Canada, Espace musique on Sept. 24. The second two are in English: “Schumann’s Revision Quest: a journey from brainstorm to score” with CBC Radio Executive Producer Jill LaForty interviewing CBC Music Producer David Houston on Sept. 25; and “Beethoven Lite” with writer and broadcaster Eric Friesen on Oct. 1. The Oct. 1 concert also includes a Post-Concert Talkback with Eric Friesen interviewing Pinchas Zukerman following the latter’s performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

The Sept. 30 concert is a detailed exploration of Mozart’s Final Piano Concerto beginning with a “Beyond the Score®” multi-media exploration of Mozart’s life and times featuring narrator Bill Richardson (of CBC Radio), Ottawa actor Pierre Brault, soprano Donna Brown and pianist Katherine Chi, with the NAC Orchestra performing musical excerpts. In the second half Katherine Chi and the NAC Orchestra led by Jean-Marie Zeitouni perform the concerto in its entirety. “Beyond the Score®” is a presentation of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Tickets for the Romantic Revolution Festival in the NAC’s Southam Hall at 8 p.m. are on sale now at $19, $29, $39.50, $50, $60, $70 and $87.50 at the newly renovated NAC Box Office (Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at 613-755-1111. Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s website at www.nac-cna.ca.

Half-price tickets for students in all sections of the hall are on sale in person at the NAC Box Office upon presentation of a valid student ID card. Live Rush tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students (aged 13 to 29) are $11 at the NAC Box Office from 2 p.m. the day before the concert to 6 p.m. the day of, upon presentation of a valid Live Rush card.

Groups of 10 and more save 15% to 20% off the regular price of tickets to NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances. To reserve your seats call 613-947-7000 ext. 384 or email grp@nac-cna.ca.

Beethoven’s “Eroica” marks the turning point from Classicism to Romanticism with its extraordinary scope, bold harmonies, and drama. And its title? Originally dedicated to Napoleon, Beethoven angrily changed his dedication to “Sinfonia Eroica, Composed to Celebrate the Memory of a Great Man,” after Napoleon declared himself Emperor. Gil Shaham, recent winner of the coveted Avery Fisher Prize and multiple Grammys, dazzles with lustrous tone and brilliant technique in Mendelssohn’s jewel of a violin concerto.

Critically acclaimed Angela Cheng, known for her spot-on Mozart interpretations, is the soloist for his 21st Piano Concerto, which took its nickname from the radiant second movement heard in the film Elvira Madigan. Arianna Zukerman’s shimmering voice reveals the beauty of Mozart’s farewell gift to an admired soprano. Plus Schubert’s most famous – and mysteriously abandoned – symphony, the “Unfinished.”

Schumann gave his wife the Fourth Symphony as a special gift: it celebrated her 22nd birthday, their first wedding anniversary, and the christening of their first child, and even included a musical portrait of her. Lynn Harrell’s appealing way of reaching out to an audience has captured rapt listeners not only at the world’s famed concert halls, but also at the Grammys, where showbiz glitterati marveled at his artistry.

Join the NAC Orchestra and conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, with stellar soloists, actor Pierre Brault and narrator Bill Richardson to explore the history of Mozart’s music. The first half of this program includes projected images, musical examples performed by the NAC Orchestra and soloists, and theatrical narration; the second half features a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in its entirety.

Beethoven’s notoriously difficult masterpiece, sometimes dubbed “the Mount Everest of violin concertos,” has near sacred status, testing the mettle of performers. What makes this evening even more extraordinary is that Pinchas Zukerman is not only the soloist but also conducts. Rounding out this all-Beethoven concert is a dramatic overture and the stately Choral Fantasy that, in tone and melody, foreshadows the “Ode to Joy” of the Ninth Symphony.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Ottawa, Canada – The National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Debut Series, which gives talented rising star musicians the opportunity to perform in recital at the NAC, will begin a new season on Monday, September 21 with soprano Joyce El-Khoury accompanied by pianist Jean Desmarais. The four-concert series of one-hour recitals hosted by NAC Artistic Attaché Paul Lefebvre takes place at noon in the NAC Salon. On this opening concert, Joyce El-Khoury will perform songs by Verdi, Duparc, Massenet, Fauré, Korngold, R. Strauss, Puccini, Gounod and Dvorák.

Admission is $3, with proceeds going to fund the NACO Bursary.

The series continues with the Afiara String Quartet on October 20; cellist Estelle Choi (from the Mount Royal College Conservatory Academy for Gifted Youth and a 2009 participant in the NAC Summer Music Institute) with pianist Jean Desmarais on November 19; and pianist Marika Bournaki on January 15, 2010.

CBC Radio 2 has returned to the Debut Series as broadcast partner. The concerts of September 21, October 20 and January 15 will be recorded for future broadcast on Tempo with host Julie Nesrallah, and on In Concert with host Bill Richardson.

Soprano Joyce El-Khoury is a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. A graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts, Ms. El-Khoury performed the roles of Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, the title role in Massenet’s Manon, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, the title role in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, and Violetta in La Traviata. This month she performs as the Second Lady in Opera Lyra Ottawa’s Magic Flute, and as Pamina for their Silver Cast production.. Other roles include Nedda in Pagliacci at the Crested Butte Music Festival and with Knoxville Opera, Marguerite in Faust with Opera Camerata of Washington, D.C.

She is a First Prize winner of the George London Foundation; 2nd Prize winner in the Gerda Lissner International Voice Competition, International Semi-Finalist in Placido Domingo’s Operalia Competition, First Prize winner in the Mario Lanza Vocal Competition, First Prize winner and WRTI Radio audience favorite in the Giargari Bel Canto Competition. Recently featured with the Metropolitan Opera MET IN THE PARKS Recital Series 2009, Ms. El-Khoury will be making her Metropolitan Opera house debut this season with roles in Le nozze di Figaro, Suor Angelica and Simon Boccanegra.

Ottawa (Canada) – The National Arts Centre – to celebrate Canada Day and its 40th anniversary – is launching the NAC Musicbox, a first-of-its-kind, online music archive of National Arts Centre Orchestra recordings as part of ArtsAlive.ca, the NAC’s award-winning performing arts educational website.

The NAC Musicbox is an online music collection with a player that allows users to search, create playlists and stream more than 150 select archival performances by the NAC Orchestra from the past 40 years. The website also contains a virtual music exhibit that enriches the music collection with an enticing array of related photos, essays about the historical background, ideas of what to listen for, and educational activities.

Key highlights of the NAC Musicbox are two, six-part podcast series on the history of the NAC Orchestra. Renowned writer-broadcaster and classical music specialist Eric Friesen hosts the English programs while Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer, musicologist and longtime music critic for LeDroit newspaper, hosts the French version.

Eric Friesen is joined by special guests and music superstars Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Yefim Bronfman, Angela Hewitt, Jon Kimura Parker, Anton Kuerti, and others. For his part, Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer delves deep into the orchestral works drawing from his 40 years of personal experience with the NAC.

ArtsAlive.ca is the National Arts Centre’s performing arts education website targeted at Canadian teachers, students, parents and the general public. The website helps the NAC pursue its strategic goals of strengthening performing arts education across Canada and developing audiences among Canadian youth. The NAC Musicbox could not have been made without the generous support of CBC Radio 2 and is made possible in part through the Culture Online program of Canadian Heritage.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

TD Canada Trust Family Adventures features famed kid-show host Daniel Cook and jazz legend Oliver Jones together with “Boris the Explorer” in a Valentine celebration on Feb. 14

Ottawa (Canada) – The series of TD Canada Trust Family Adventures with the NAC Orchestra continues on Saturday, February 14 with Principal Youth and Family Conductor Boris Brott taking the podium in his persona of “Boris the Explorer” for a special Valentine’s Day celebration. Boris’s co-host is kid sensation Daniel Cook from the hit children’s TV show This is Daniel Cook, and more recently guest host of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Boris and Daniel will lead their young audience on an exploration to uncover musical friendships behind great classical and jazz works. They will be helped along the way by jazz legend Oliver Jones, by 11 and 14-year-old Ottawa virtuosos Kerson (violin) and Stanley (cello) Leong, by NAC Orchestra principal horn Lawrence Vine, and by the Cantiamo Girls Choir. For extra fun, dress the kids (and yourself!) up in red. These bilingual TD Canada Trust Family Adventures, perfect for kids 5 and up and their grown-up friends, are at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon

The concert ticket includes “TuneTown”, pre-concert activities in the NAC Foyer organized by Friends of the NAC Orchestra 45 minutes prior to each concert, beginning at 12:45 p.m. for the first concert and 2:45 p.m. for the second concert. In keeping with the Valentine’s Day theme, there will be a craft station where children can make their own Valentines and send them to the musicians of the Orchestra, and there will be additional Valentine’s Day activities by Music for Young Children. There will also be information stations by the Ottawa Public Library, by the Cantiamo Girls Choir of Ottawa, and by the Canadian Aviation Museum (a model of the “Silver Dart” aircraft to celebrate the centennial this month of Canada’s first powered flight). The Musicians from The Regimental Band of the Governor General’s Foot Guards will host a woodwind instrumental petting zoo. Daniel Cook will come out to meet the audience and sign autographs after both concerts.

The six-decade career of pianist Oliver Jones mirrors the proud history of jazz in his native Montreal, the city that also produced Oscar Peterson, Oliver’s lifelong friend and continuing inspiration. Though semi-retired from public performance, Jones recorded an album with singer Ranee Lee, Just You, Just Me, which won the Toronto Urban Music Award for Best Jazz Recording in November 2005. With the NAC Orchestra he will perform “Fulford Street” and “Wonderful World” and will offer jazz improvisations including one on the theme from Daniel Cook’s TV show.

This is Daniel Cook is a spontaneous, live-action, on-location original series that followed its host –Daniel Cook who started at age 6 and hosted until he was 8 – as he explored the world from his perspective. The hit show for pre-schoolers aired on Treehouse and TVO in Canada, Disney in the US has been seen in 85 countries in 14 languages. He recently appeared as special correspondent on The Oprah Winfrey Show hosting the “Amazing Kids” episodes.

Daniel will help Boris find musical friendships in such music as Schumann’s Allegro performed by NACO principal horn Lawrence Vine, Brahms’ Lullaby, Vivaldi’s Concerto for Violin and Cello performed by Kerson (violin) and Stanley (cello) Leung, and Ravel’s “Beauty and the Beast” from Mother Goose, as well as the theme from the Disney version of that famous fairy tale. Oscar Peterson’s Hymn to Freedom with Oliver Jones, the Orchestra and the Cantiamo Girls Choir brings the celebrations to a close.

All TD Canada Trust Family Adventures feature NACOtron presented in collaboration with Rogers Television. Five television cameras positioned on stage and in the hall capture live video images of the musicians while they are performing, and these images are projected onto a giant screen above the stage allowing the audience to watch the action in close-up.

The Ottawa Citizen is the media partner of the TD Canada Trust Family Adventures with the NAC Orchestra.

Tickets for Boris the Explorer: Be My Valentine on Saturday, February 14 at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., including TuneTown Pre-Concert Activities, are $12.00 for children and $20.00 for adults (including GST and Facility Fee where applicable) and are on sale now at the NAC Box Office (Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.), and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at 613-755-1111. Visit the National Arts Centre’s web site at www.nac-cna.ca.

Groups of 10 and more save 15% to 20% off the regular price of tickets to NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances. To reserve your seats call 613-947-7000 ext. 384 or email grp@nac-cna.ca.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

NAC Feb. 12: Debut Series with Shanshan Yao

NAC Orchestra’s 2009 Debut Series of recitals and “Exploration of the Concerto” continues on Feb. 12 with violinist Shanshan Yao

Ottawa, Canada – The National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Debut Series, which gives talented rising star musicians the opportunity to perform in recital at the NAC, continues on Thursday, February 12 with violinist Shanshan Yao accompanied by pianist Jean Desmarais. The series of one-hour recitals takes place at noon in the NAC Salon. The program consists of Respighi’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in B minor, three movements from Dompierre’s Les Diableries, and Wieniawski’s Polonaise in D major. Admission is $3, with proceeds going to fund the NACO Bursary.

Each Debut Series noon-hour recital is connected to a Musically Speaking “Exploration of the Concerto” pre-concert talk the evening on the same date. Prior to the National Arts Centre Orchestra concert on February 12 at 8 p.m., Shanshan Yao, together with her mentor William van der Sloot of Calgary’s Mount Royal College Conservatory, will discuss and demonstrate the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto to be performed later than evening by violinist Sarah Chang. Admission to the Pre-Concert Talk hosted by Michel Dozois is free.

As a soloist, Chinese violinist Shanshan Yao has performed with Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Banff Centre Chamber Orchestra, and Japan’s Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra. A violinist since the age of six, she enrolled at Shanghai Conservatory of Music when she was nine. She made her orchestra debut at the age of twelve playing Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G minor with the Shanghai Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Yao is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the Calgary Concerto Competition and Morningside Music Bridge Concerto Competition (Canada), and CBC Radio’s Up and Coming series. Shanshan Yao is also an avid chamber musician and her piano trio won the second prize in the National Music Festival in Canada. Currently, Shanshan Yao is pursuing her Master of Music Degree at The Juilliard School with Donald Weilersteina and Ronald Copes. She continued her studies in Canada as a full-scholarship student in Mount Royal College Conservatory’s Academy Program under the tutelage of William van der Sloot. Most recently, Ms. Yao received the Bachelor of Music Degree from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Aaron Rosand.

Recently, she was invited to appear in a special performance for the former Secretary of State Colin Powell at the Eisenhower Fellowships Conference in Philadelphia.

The NAC Debut Series continues with the following recitals and Musically Speaking Pre-Concert “Explorations of the Concerto”:

FRIDAY, MAY 15

Yina Tong, cello

Jean Desmarais, piano

Paul Lefebvre, host

Salon at 12 noon: Noonhour recital

Salon at 7 p.m.: Exploration of Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with cello teacher John Kadz (Mount Royal College Conservatory).

NAC Orchestra Musicians’ FanFair campaign raises $62,527

The musicians of the National Arts Centre Orchestra are pleased to announce that the 2008 NACO musicians' Christmas FanFair fundraising campaign has raised a record total of $62,527 for the Snowsuit Fund and the Food Bank. This amount will be divided evenly between the two charities.

The Snowsuit Fund distributes over 15,000 snowsuits every year. The Food Bank gives food assistance to 40,000 people every month - nearly half of them children.

The musicians of the NAC Orchestra wish most sincerely to thank the National Arts Centre, members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 471, Friends of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Ottawa Citizen and Bell Canada for their generous support.